Chapter V

The streets of Upper Junon were almost as dirty as Midgar's slums, but apart from that, the structure was very much like the upper plate. The air was always dry there though, and the smell of sea salt was everywhere. It was also a very hot place, as there were huge backup generators everywhere. Unlike Midgar, Junon only had one Mako reactor, which was underwater. Its energy traveled to each of the generators where it could be additionally charged and then sent out all over the city. Lower Junon was almost as bad as Midgar's slums. Upper Junon was the military base of Shin-Ra and had been built out of a cliff that overlooked Lower Junon, and as a result, Lower Junon was always in shadow, resting under the base. It was a famous fishing town before the base had been built and to this day remains a fishing town, although not quite as popular anymore.

Reno was walking again, and wasn't wearing any bandages except for the ones under his collared shirt which covered his stitches. Although he was on medical leave, he was still at Junon with the rest of Shin-Ra. He was really sore, but otherwise fully-functioning. Plus he had his trusty EMR strapped onto his belt. If there should there be any trouble he knew he could effortlessly put it down.

He sat at the bar of the Turks' personal club downing the last bit of rum from his fourth bottle, working on a heavy buzz. He sat between Elena and Rude, though Elena wasn't drinking. He turned to Rude, who sat on his other side sipping a beer, and asked him a question in a drawling voice.

"Hey, what do you think of that new Elena girl? Good looking, huh? You need a girl to help you relax, man."

"I'm sitting right here, Reno!" exclaimed Elena. "I didn't even think you were that drunk!"

"I'm not," he replied, turning to face her, his long red ponytail whipping around and almost hitting her. "But I was asking Rude. I didn't think you'd mind me asking, but if you're gonna take it personally, then nevermind. Anyways, I don't mind saying that you're easy on the eyes. Shit, I just been out of work too long. When's this damn parade anyways?"

"Tomorrow at noon," Rude replied after swallowing some of his drink.

"Alright then, if I get plastered now then I should be fine by then. I have to look my best for TV, yo."

"Does that mean you'll tuck your shirt in?" asked Elena, still a bit annoyed.

"Hell no. Besides, I don't need… why do I feel like I'm explaining this all the time? I look good, that's all that matters, Elena. I know you're new, but you'll learn the Turk code soon enough." He looked at her quizzical face and went on. "It's nothing written, it's just kind of an unspoken agreement between myself, Tseng, and the big man…" He swiveled back around toward Rude suddenly. "Yo, we playing poker tonight? Chances are I'll be too shitfaced to beat you, what do you say?"

Rude couldn't say anything though, because his PHS went off, and he held his hand to Reno's mouth to silence him as he answered. "Yes… alright… forest directly southeast of here? Okay… Are you still tailing AV… Fort Condor area, alright. Yes, we'll check it out. Bye." He pocketed his PHS and turned Reno and Elena. "Tseng says that he's spotted someone in a nearby forest. He's still got his eye on AVALANCHE and says that they shouldn't be showing up here until early tomorrow. He wants us to check out the forest, because it could be Sephiroth. So Elena, I think it would be best if we went as soon as possible. Now perhaps."

"I'm coming," Reno told him flatly.

"As your partner and best friend I don't think you're ready yet for…"

"Fuck that!" Reno told him. Reno was ready now, and although he was still sore, it wasn't much different than working in a hangover, which he'd done often. He had his armor, weapon, and uniform anyways, plus he was bored. That was all the incentive he needed, and in just those two words, he told it to Rude.

"You've been drinking," protested Elena, but it was no use. He was going, and he knew Rude knew that already, which was why he had stood up to leave.

"That's all the more reason for me to go; I won't feel as much pain. Come on, we have a job to do," he told her and followed his partner out the door, and soon heard the footsteps of Elena behind him too.

The Turks had all split up upon entering the woods, and were going to comb the relatively small forest in their standard fashion. Reno was more than ready to meet up with Sephiroth, and was even hoping he would. He'd been out of action for too long now, and was looking for a good fight, however buzzed and sore he was. He had been looking for about a half an hour when he found a gleaming yellow object lying on the ground on his path. Upon closer inspection, he realized it was a materia. Reno picked it up off the ground, tossed it in the air, and caught it again. With a satisfied smirk, he was about to move on when a blur of motion leapt out from behind some trees, sending Reno onto his back. Before he could even stand up, a large four-point shuriken found its way over him, burying two of its points into the ground on either side of him, trapping his arms down.

Reno looked up at his attacker, going over possible ways to escape when he was suddenly taken aback. Reno found his attacker to be a very attractive, albeit teenage, Wutain girl with short black hair that covered a bandana, and very strange armor that included an arm-sheath. She wore a sleeveless green turtleneck that stopped above her navel, and a pair of unbuttoned tan shorts that were very short in comparison to her long legs.

"…the hell?" was all Reno could sputter out in his shock. Somehow she had managed to get hold of his EMR and was inspecting in for some reason or other. He then realized what she was doing, and couldn't believe he'd fallen for it. She'd set a trap for him with the yellow materia, and when he distracted himself with it, she jumped him, and was now stealing it from him, along with the materia he had had with him. The one problem with this situation, however, was that no one stole from a Turk and survived.

Reno, suddenly filled with alcohol-infused anger, slid out from underneath the shuriken and swept his leg under the girl, tripping her up. She dropped his weapon before managing to remove anything, and Reno caught it before it hit the ground. With a flick of the wrist, it extended to its full length, and he leapt up to his feet. Spinning around, he made to bring down his weapon onto her prone form, but it was only met by the shuriken, which she held out before her as a shield. She rolled backwards onto her feet, and then suddenly back flipped toward a tree, and then kicked off the trunk, diving forward at Reno, swiping the shuriken at him in the process. He barely deflected the blow with his own weapon, but she still managed to turn in the air and kick him square in the chest, knocking him to the ground once again. She used her momentum to rebound off of him, and do another flip in the air and land on her feet a good distance away. While Reno got back up to his feet, she fused the yellow materia he had found into her weapon.

Reno made to charge forward at her, but she suddenly threw the shuriken at him, causing him to stop in his tracks and duck. The shuriken changed directions after and sailed back around right into her hands again. Reno knew that the yellow materia must have been a Throw, which is what enabled a weapon to act like a boomerang such as this one was. He was now too close for her to throw it again, and so she thrust it out in front of her as Reno approached. He was too quick for her this time, however, and managed to jump up and step on her shuriken as she thrust it forward, slamming it to the ground. She took a step back, but Reno thrust his own weapon outward, and sent a burst of electricity through her body, and she fell to the ground.

"So you're some type of ninja, aren't you darling?" he drawled, breathing heavily but still managing to keep an air of sarcasm in his voice.
"Gave me a run for my money, yo, but I'm a Turk. I'm paid to put down thieves like you.

"I'm far from a thief, asshole, and trust me if you killed me there would be a bounty on your head so large Shin-Ra would discharge you!" she snapped while trying to recover from being electrocuted.

"Yeah right, what are you, princess of Wutai?" he asked sarcastically, but then received a look from her so deadly that he thought he might have guessed correctly. "Wish I had that kind of luck in the casino," he thought to himself, but shook off his arrogance. There was no way the princess of Wutai would be halfway around the world hunting for materia in the middle of a forest. Either way, this moment of doubt removed his killer instinct. Besides, she was damn good-looking, maybe if she was old enough he could get her in bed… then again, he thought, why did she have to be old enough?

"Shut up, Turkey," was all she said through clenched teeth, and when Reno bent down, he didn't even know if it was to help or harm her, she suddenly brought her foot to his bandaged chest and kicked him over her head, and rolling to her feet in the process. He lost grip of his weapon, but managed to grab onto her ankle before she could pick up her own. She tripped again and the two wrestled on the ground with each other as they both struggled to get to their feet.

This went on for minutes before they were both torn apart by strong hands. Reno was about to hit this new person before realizing it was Rude, who threw the girl into a tree and then handed Reno his EMR back. "Thanks, partner," he muttered to Rude while shaking his hair out of his face and pushing his sunglasses back up onto his forehead. "Chick's got spunk to match those legs, I'll tell you. Either I'm going to kill her or I'm beginning to like her." She was too busy getting back to her feet to notice what he was saying, and slowly made her way to her weapon before picking it up.

"Come on, partner, let's get out of here," replied Rude. "She must be who Tseng was talking about. Not our concern, let's leave her."

"Yeah…" Reno agreed. Although he was ready to moments ago, he hated killing if he didn't have to… was he actually becoming nothing more than a murderer? They turned to leave before Reno turned back to her. "Heyo, what's your name anyways?"

She looked up at him from examining her wounds, obviously having known the fight was over, and spat "What's it to you?"

"Nothing important, it's just I'm impressed… and I thought might look you up sometime. Anyway, name's Reno."

"Don't count on calling, Reno, I'm unlisted. Besides, I'm not telling you my name anyway, jerk."

"She is Yuffie Kisaragi, daughter of Lord Godo," Rude spoke up. Reno and the girl were both shocked, although she seemed more nervous. Godo was the emperor of Wutai, and if this girl was who Rude said she was, that made her princess.

"Well I hope I never see you again!" shouted the girl suddenly before running off into the woods. Rude would never lie intentionally to Reno, nor would he give him information unless he was 100 percent sure. Judging by her reaction, she in fact was Yuffie Kisaragi, and Reno almost killed her.

When the last executive filed in and sat down, Rufus finally had no option but to turn his focus to the four people sitting at the table with him. Then he realized he should be looking at five.

"Where's Hojo?" he asked to no one in particular. Since the night his father had been murdered he hadn't really talked to anyone aside from after the first board meeting, and spent most of his time adjusting to the building, the office, and the new position. Then again, he never really talked to anyone anyways if he didn't have to. As it was, Reeve was the only person in the room who was halfway decent in his eyes. Heidegger was a power-hungry bastard who only cared about controlling as much of the Planet as he could, and Scarlet… well, she had probably slept her way to the top, and as for deceit and manipulation she was right up there with Heidegger. As for Palmer, Rufus had a suspicion he was borderline crazy.

"He's been missing," growled Heidegger, opening up a briefcase and taking out some of its contents. "He'll probably show up in a few days with some stupid research info about Sephiroth that won't help us figure out where he is or where he's going… As for Sunday's parade, I'll be happy to…"

"That's fine Heidegger, you can fill me in on the details when the time comes. I trust you know what you're doing," said Rufus lazily. "Are there any updates on AVALANCHE?"

"Yes, Mr. President," replied Scarlet, "They've just left the Fort Condor area. Tseng's tailing them. They will probably arrive in Lower Junon sometime tomorrow."

"Alright, at least that's under control. I want the report on your idea for the Mako canon by tomorrow night, Heidegger, keep up the good work. Reeve… I don't know if we'll get the time to start soon, but I want the damage estimates for Sector 7 when you get the chance, so we can start planning on rebuilding. Anything to add, Palmer?"

"No sir," he said almost glumly.

"Well then that's all. Meeting adjourned." Rufus combed his hand through his hair and swiveled around in his chair while the executives filed out. Rufus sat in his chair for a bit longer thinking. He didn't really know what he was doing amidst this crisis. Sure, he had run things over in Junon for a few years, but everything was relatively peaceful during that time, with the only exception being a number of small gangs. Between AVALANCHE and Sephiroth, Rufus felt like he was running blindly through a maze trying to keep his corporation on top of things, and still maintain the backing of the citizen population. Telling them everything was being handled was one thing, but it was a white lie just to prevent further chaos.

He just hoped that this parade would go off as planned, boosting the population's morale while also cornering Sephiroth. It was a very risky plan, but it was the only one at the moment that didn't involve putting half of the world under martial law. This way, every soldier would be on alert and patrolling without the citizens of Junon noticing anything's wrong.

Rufus sighed as he exited the room and headed towards the elevators to take him back upstairs, passing Reeve's Caith Sith robot along the way. "Good evening Mr. President!" it said in its cheery voice as he passed, but Rufus paid it no attention, preferring to get back up to his office as soon as he could. So many things had gone wrong in his few days here. His father died, Sephiroth returned, AVALANCHE almost sabotaged the entire building, and now Hojo was missing. The atmosphere wasn't as bad with him gone, but it was still an important matter nonetheless. Hojo headed the Jenova project after Professor Gast left, and Sephiroth had taken Jenova's corpse with him. Rufus had more than a feeling these two events were related. If Hojo didn't show up soon, he'd have Heidegger set up a search for him, but only after the parade. Heidegger had enough on his hands as it was. He sat down at his desk once he reached it and stretched his arms, trying to relax. This was not a good time to be the ruler of the world.

Yuffie Kisaragi had joined the ranks of AVALANCHE shortly after her run in with Reno and Rude. It was funny, thought Tseng, that he had mistaken a spoiled 16 year old princess for the son of an Ancient. However, in light of the recent news that she was halfway around the world from her home country hunting and thieving for materia, his mistake didn't seem as big of a surprise as he initially thought.

However, this now meant that AVALANCHE would definitely have access to much greater resources, as it was no secret that Wutai and the Kisaragi Dynasty were no fans of Shin-Ra, having just lost the war a few years earlier. The result of the war meant that while Wutai would still have full authority and control over its own government and law system, its military would be disbanded and at any given time, Shin-Ra could intercede and overrule any law by placing its own. While Lord Godo had essentially given in to these terms without much argument not wanting to lose any more of his people, Yuffie was just the opposite. It was well-known worldwide that she was against Shin-Ra and thus also against her father. A few 1st class SOLDIERs were actually stationed in the Wutai capital incognito, keeping an extra guard on Godo for the sole reasoning that if Godo were to be assassinated by anti-Shin-Ra terrorists (such as AVALANCHE) then Yuffie would be the one to claim the throne and very likely attempt to start a second war by easily rounding up veterans of the first who were still bitter. However Tseng knew this would be an unlikely scenario because AVALANCHE never lowered themselves to outright direct assassination, even though their actions had inadvertently led to the deaths of masses, if not just as many as the dropping of the plate. Rufus, unfortunately, seemed to be just as short-sighted as his late father though and disagreed with this fact, and so continued to keep the SOLDIERs stationed in Wutai.

Tseng had now deduced that Sephiroth could only have fled to one of three towns on the west side of the mountains. Fort Condor was out of the running due its small size and anti-Shin-Ra activity. This left only Zozo, Balamb, or the most likely candidate, Junon. Reno, Rude, and Elena were all back in the military base on high alert, and would remain there until Tseng joined them after inspecting the other two towns quickly. However, Tseng was fairly certain that he would not find the black caped man anywhere other than Junon, but he didn't want to assume anything and would be checking all possible locations.

Entering Zozo, Tseng decided that he'd be in and out of this town in minutes. It was small, as most non-Shin-Ra controlled towns were, and was actually very run down. Many of the townspeople were criminals in hiding or ex-cons. However, it would be an ideal place for Sephiroth to hide in for a time, or even raise a small army. Tseng knew the town all too well. He had been here many times before, tracking some of the more threatening criminals that had crossed the late President Shinra.

Something was wrong though. Tseng had walked confidently into town under the beaten-down wooden archway that once supported an elaborate sign identifying the town, and knew almost immediately that it was too quiet. Normally you couldn't walk ten feet without someone trying to mug you, or seeing a fight break out, but Tseng couldn't see a single person, living or otherwise, around. Putting on an air of caution, he quickened his pace to a jog and headed straight for the town square.

Ten minutes later, Tseng found the source of the abandonment. In the middle of the square was a burning pile of wood, and littered throughout the area were bodies of the thieves and criminals who lived there. This at least confirmed Tseng's suspicions that Sephiroth would at least have been in Zozo for a brief period. Apparently he decided that it was even too shady of a place for a man like himself though, because whomever wasn't cowering in fear in their houses was dead in the village square. Even if these people had been respectable Tseng wouldn't have had time to shed a tear over theirs deaths though, as this meant that Sephiroth was without a doubt in or near Junon, and Tseng would have to haul ass to get there. He flipped open his PHS to call the other Turks and ran out of town as quickly and discreetly as he'd come in.